


Luffy-isms

by Gallus



Series: Here There Be Dragons [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dragons, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 08:29:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19390360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gallus/pseuds/Gallus
Summary: A series of completely normal things Luffy does.(OrNine Times A Strawhat Pirate Failed their Perception Check And One Time One Succeeded)





	Luffy-isms

**Author's Note:**

> ive been working on this AU since october 
> 
> plz take

1

In those first few hours alone on their little rowboat Zoro learns that his new captain is perhaps the single most grabby person in the world. At first Zoro just thinks it's the excitement of finally having a crew-member that's got Luffy persistently tugging at his shirt and poking at his side, but after the excitement wears off and the sun starts to set Zoro finds himself with a lapful of one Monkey D. Luffy.

“Hey.” Zoro says, “Get off.”

Luffy presses his bony chin into Zoro's shoulder.

This time Zoro shoves at Luffy, “ 'm serious, get off me.”

Luffy makes a noise that could be a slurred sort of “No” or could be a snore. Either way he tightens his arms around Zoro in a way that makes Zoro worry vaguely as to whether or not Luffy's ever accidentally tied himself to something in his sleep before.

_(The answer is yes, and it was a whole three days before Ace would let him sleep in the same pile as him. It was arguably the worst three days of Luffy's young life, but both him and Ace maintain that after he woke up and saw them Sabo laughed so hard he pissed himself a little.)_

Zoro sighs, and thinks, ,i>'Just this once.' as tries to shift Luffy's weight into a slightly more comfortable position for the last time.

–

It's not the last time.

At least with more crew-members Luffy's grabby-ness started to become more evenly spread out. Zoro cracks his eye open to watch the commotion taking place aboard the Sunny. Across the deck Luffy is hanging off of Usopp's back while Usopp tries to work on... something. Evidently, Luffy had been doing the same thing to Franky a few moments ago, and before that he had been napping peacefully on Robin's lap, up until she decided she needed to stretch her legs.

Traitor.

It makes Zoro think of the first time Sanji had caught Luffy curled in Nami's lap though. Man, that had been hilarious, Sanji just about blew a gasket. And speaking of the Shit-cook, it's always funny when Luffy gets in a grabby mood around Sanji. Luffy usually grabs at Sanji's hands, tries playin' with 'em, and sometimes when the Shit-cook's not too busy and thinks nobody's watching he'll free up a hand to be fondled. Zoro huffs a little laugh to himself, and hopes that's what happens next so he can call Sanji out on being such a big softie when Luffy notices he's awake.

Fuck.

Luffy gets this huge shit eating grin on his face as he allows himself to be pried off Usopp's back, and Zoro sighs as he accepts his fate.

The thing is, Zoro thinks as Luffy trots across the lawn, is that it wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that Luffy was so deceptive heavy, and that he absolutely had to be on top of his chosen napping partner/victim. Even after that time Chopper almost suffocated, Luffy still crawls into his hammock some nights, and still almost crushes the poor little reindeer to death. Not even bony 'ol Brook, or rough-skinned Jinbei are safe.

_'oh well,'_ Zoro thinks as Luffy settles onto his lap like a bag of bricks, _''s'not like I was planin' on getin' up anyway.'_

2

At first Nami thinks that weirdo in the strawhat and his green haired lackey are a pair of easy marks, and she's not wrong, but...

Luffy's just so sincere that, while she's poking around the Merry for good treasure hiding spots, Nami thinks she'll be a little sad when it comes time to part ways.

_(Only a little.)_

But then.

_But Then._

Nami catches him out of the corner of her eye, and he's looking at her, and it's the same look.

_The Same Look._

And then Nami can't be here anymore

–

A few days later, and Nami's in her bed _(Her Bed)_ aboard the Merry staring at the wall. She should be sleeping. She should be happy, Luffy just freed her home _(Freed her)_ but, she can't stop thinking about the look Luffy gave her.

The same one Arlong always gave her.

So the night after Nami is staring at her wall hoping that she hasn't made a mistake, when she hears her door softly creak open.

She freezes, and listens to the soft footsteps pad across her room.

Luffy stops at her bed. Nami has her back to him, but she can feel the weight of his gaze on her. He's just standing there, and she needs to do something, punch him, yell at him to get out, _anything._

But before she can work up the nerve to do anything his hand settles on the top of her head and, ever so gently, Luffy tucks a lock of hair behind her ear.

If she hadn't spent the last twenty-four hours crying Nami thinks she could cry right now.

Luffy peels back the sheets, and wiggles into bed to press up against her. He wraps an arm snugly around her waist, and pushes his nose into the back of her neck.

_(She'll think about this moment later when she sees Luffy direct the Look at others. At Usopp telling tall tales to Chopper. At Brook humming to himself while he sweeps. At Robin when he demands that she tell the truth.)_

“Nami's my navigator.” he murmurs against her neck, “Mine.”

Nami swallows thickly, and nods.

Luffy tightens his grip, but not so much as to be painful, and says, “Nami's mine, s'that means no one ever gets to hurt her again. 'K?”

And Nami has belonged to someone before, someone that used her and treated her like dirt. But maybe now she can belong to someone new, someone that thinks she's more precious than all the riches in the sea.

_(Later, when she sees Luffy sitting at the head of an overflowing dinner table with the Look on his face she'll think that maybe they all belong to Luffy, at least a little bit.)_

3

Back on Syrup they had these huge, black birds that would migrate to the island during the winter. The birds were loud, smart, and above all else, loved shiny things. All of the villagers knew that as long as the birds were around to keep all things that were even vaguely shiny under lock and key, because the second you took your eyes off of something, _BAM!_ Stolen by a huge bird.

Leave your kitchen window open to let some air in? _BAM!_ Huge bird steals all of your cutlery. Drop you wallet and coins go spilling everywhere? _BAM!_ Twenty birds appear to fight to the death over your pocket change. Leave you clothesline unattended for, like, five seconds because you forgot you book inside? _BAM!_ A stupid, huge, ugly bird is pecking all of the buttons off of your pants.

_(Usopp is still mad about that last one. It took him two days to mend all of those clothes. TWO! DAYS!)_

But anyways, the point Usopp is trying to make here is that Luffy is ten times worse than any of those big, dumb birds had ever been. At least the birds had been obvious in their intent, but nobody on the crew noticed until about two weeks in. It had been Usopp's turn to do laundry again when he realized that he'd never seen Luffy wash his bedding, _(? Gross?)_ and naively yanked Luffy's blankets down only to reveal two forks, five spoons, one of Snaji's kitchen knives, _(the bad one, thank god, otherwise Usopp might not have had a captain after that,)_ about 250 berries in change, roughly two-dozen of the little ball bearings Usopp used for ammo, and Nami's missing necklace.

_(It was a wonder Luffy survived the whole ordeal, should've been the first sign that Luffy really was the future Pirate King to be honest.)_

But anyways, that incident failed to improve Luffy's behavior, if anything it made him sneakier! _(Which wasn't say much, but still.)_ Eventually everybody just kinda, got used to it. Nami learned to accept that she would always be missing an earring or two, _(Usopp's pretty sure she even started setting out decoys,)_ Zoro started raiding Luffy's bed whenever he needs some change, and Sanji's incorporated doing Luffy's laundry once a week into his kitchen cleaning routine so they don't run out of spoons.

Such is life.

-

It's actually a while before Usopp thinks about those birds again. A little ways down the line, and they cross paths with the Heart Pirates again, so of course that means Luffy wants to catch up for a bit, and maybe use this as an excuse to throw a party.

It's a nice, sunny day, and the Polar Tang is parked close enough to the Sunny that the two crews can easily intermingle. Usopp is chatting with a member of the Heart's about the logistics of, _(and quietly deciding against ever,)_ living in a submarine, when suddenly there's a ruckus coming from the deck of the Polar Tang.

Emerging from the depths the Polar Tang is the one and only Surgeon of Death, swinging his head around like he's about to bite someone's head off, followed closely by a haggard looking Bepo. The Minkman is trying his hardest to drag his captain back below deck, but Law's gaze quickly zeros in on it's target. Luffy on the deck of the Sunny, currently trying to see how many marshmallows he can fit in his mouth at once. _(The Heart that goaded him into it is keeping count, of course.)_

“Strawhat!” Law all but shrieks.

'Taffy!” Luffy yells back, send a spray of spit coated marshmallows everywhere.

_(God, why are they always like this.)_

Before Usopp can even start to guess as to what's going on Law twists his hand, and in the spot where there was a very angry man with a sword is now the fancy teacups and sandwiches that were at Nami's table. The little plates and snacks crash to the ground. At about the same time there's a sharp _“BAM!”_ from the table where Nami was having lunch with one of the lady Hearts, as Law smacks down onto it.

“Excuse me!” Nami shouts at Law's back, as he marches toward where Luffy is cleaning up the spit covered marshmallows off the ground by... Ah. He's eating them.

_(Every goddamn day.)_

“Strawhat.” Law says, this time a low growl.

“Taffy.” Luffy smiles back, though grass and marshmallow filled cheeks.

Law takes a deep breath, and hisses it out though his teeth. “Where are they, Strawhat?” he asks slowly, as if speaking to a child, or a particularly stupid dog.

_(He's not exactly wrong.)_

“Where's what?” asks Luffy, which is apparently the wrong answer, because Law shrieks for real this time, and the poor fools that were standing nearby abruptly have their limbs shuffled around.

_(Hmm. Usopp didn't know that Zoro and Chopper were napping over there, and now he has another image in his mind that will never be scrubbed clean._

_Just another day in the life of God Usopp.)_

Luffy must hear something in all that shrieking though, because he laughs and says, “Why didn't you say so in the first place! Their still in my pocket.” and then Law is digging through Luffy's shorts with all the fury of a man possessed-

_(Okay.)_

-until he finds what he's looking for.

A handful of shiny coins.

“Y'know, you could've just told me those were your things! I wouldn't have took 'm if I knew, Traffy. I swear!” Luffy laughs. And there's something in the way Luffy says the word “Things” like there's more to it than that.

Law quickly counts, and recounts the coins, and then glares down at Luffy and hisses, “Stop going through my things.” and then he's gone. Leaving only a confused mass of reshuffled pirates, and a pile of ruined teacups and fancy sandwiches to show he was there.

Nami's already marching toward a still giggling Luffy, telling him off for causing... whatever that was. Chopper looks like he's recovering nicely. Zoro's still asleep.

One of the senior Hearts, the guy with the penguin hat, is awkwardly joking about how serious their captain takes his coin collection. Usopp looks back to the deck of the Polar Tang. Bepo's shepherding Law towards the door while the guy with the killer whale hat scolds him. Usopp can't hear what's being said, but he sees Law in that feathered coat of his, hunched over his handful of shiny coins, and thinks Law looks like he could have been raised by one of those big black birds.

4

Not to brag, but Sanji is a damn good cook.

It's only natural, you'd have to be to keep up with the nightmare that is keeping the Strawhat Pirates fed and healthy. Sure, it's not like there aren't complaints, every cook is bound to get a few complaints here or there, but it's always minor things. Things like, “Sanji, I told you I don't eat mushrooms.” or, “'ey Cook! Why'szit taste like 'y spit 'n it?” complaints that can easily be answered by le restaurant de merde' s wonderful PR department, and by PR department Sanji means his bootheel.

Ungrateful bastards.

Still, it's almost worth it to hear the occasional, “Dinner was _Super_ tonight bro! You think we could do burgers sometime this week?” or, “Sanji! Sanji! This island's got a bakery with cookies that look and taste like flowers! Do you know how to do that?!” Sure, it's not a nice as a complement from a beautiful lady, but what is? 

There's only person on the ship that doesn't have all that much to say is, surprisingly, Luffy. His complements began at, “That was great, Sanji!” and his complainants end at, “Sanji! Needs more meat!”

Sanji might feel a little disheartened if Luffy displayed any ability at all to tell the difference between cooked food and uncooked food.

-

See, it started with the first time Luffy raided his kitchen. The only signs of break-in had been the missing food itself. At first past-Sanji was worried he was dealing with a mastermind here, but that fear was quickly alleviate after past-Sanji was able to temporarily put a stop to the midnight kitchen raids with a few childproof safety locks.

After Luffy figured out that he could just punch the locks open the raids restarted, only this time he started to leave behind evidence. The shattered lock, taped sadly to the doorknob.

This was when past-Sanji had started to get confused. How was it that Luffy was able to sneak into the kitchen, cook his own food, and cleanup after himself leaving only some broken locks behind as evidence. Sanji is very particular about his kitchen, and yet Luffy, a man that could only be described as a walking mess, was able to leave exactly as it had been last time past-Sanji had seen it.

There were only two reasonable explanations.

1\. Luffy had help.

2\. Luffy was eating the meat raw.

Past-Sanji threw out that second explanation. After all, no matter how fresh it was, and no matter how well it was stored, one person could only eat so much raw meat before getting sick.

What a fool past-Sanji had been.

With a short list of potential suspects in hand poor, naive, past-Sanji got to work.

Obviously the ever lovely Nami had nothing to do with the break-ins.

Mosshead would do it, if only to piss Sanji off, but he didn't have the smarts.

That left one person.

“USOPP!”

“What did I do!?” Usopp wailed from hiding spot up in the crow's nest.

“YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID YOU SHITTY BASTARD!” Sanji had to hand it to Usopp, he was cowardly, but he was crafty. He bolted for the crow's nest the second he saw past-Sanji coming his way, and quickly fortified his position, so past-Sanji couldn't get up there without being shot at.

It was only a matter of time though, past-Sanji had thought to himself as he leaned off the side of the Merry while pouring a glass of milk into his searing eye, Usopp could only have so many Tabasco sauce laced pellets on him.

What a stupid, stupid, fool Sanji had once been.

At this point shitty mosshead, and the meat-thief himself had wandered out for their weird pre-lunch snuggle-nap.

Past-Sanji spun around and threw the half empty glass at Luffy's face. Luffy and Zoro were standing close enough together so that when the glass broke against Luffy's face some of the milk splashed onto Zoro. Ha, Two in one! It was almost enough to make past-Sanji feel like smiling.

Almost.

The scuffle that ensued had been loud enough to disturb the ever lovely Nami, who decided to take a short break from tending to her orange trees to grace their eardrums with a, “What the hell it going on over here!”

All at once Luffy yelled, “Sanji's throwing things at me!” Usopp cried, “Sanji's trying to kill me!” past-Sanji, in a very cool and charming way, said, “Just putting a stop the Luffy's path of culinary destruction, my Love!” Zoro probably made one of his man-ape noises or something, past-Sanji hadn't been paying that much attention.

The ever knowledgeable Nami sighed, and rubbed at her gorgeous forehead with one delicate hand, “Have you tried just asking Luffy who's helping him?”

“Eh. N-not ye-”

Nami cut him off, “Luffy! Who's helping you sneak in and out of the kitchen?”

Ahh, Nami~ So quick and to the point.

Luffy looked up from where he was manhandling Zoro into a more comfortable pillow position, “Wha? No one's helping. If someone was helping me then I'd have to share the food!”

Past-Sanji scoffed, “So you just expect me to believe you of all people can cook silently, and without leaving a mess behind?”

“Ah?” Luffy had a death grip on the arm that Zoro was trying to us to push him off to the side with, “I don't cook anything, I just eat it!”

After a slight pause, Zoro finally decided to use human words, “... You saying that you've been eating raw meat every night for the past week?”

“Yep!” Luffy said, as he wrapped Zoro's arm around his waist, “It's my favorite!” A worried look briefly crossed his brows, “I still love Sanji's though! Is that's what's wrong? Does Sanji think I don't like his food? 'cause I do! It's the best in the whole world!” he reassured.

All was silent on the deck of the Merry, as everyone took a moment to process that new information.

Then, up from the crow's nest, “So.. uh. Can I come down now?”

5

At first, Chopper had thought that Luffy was so scary!

After all, who wouldn't be scared of a stranger that smelled like a storm and wanted to eat you?

But then! Luffy had protected the Doctor's flag, and said that he wanted Chooper to join his crew, and most importantly, he had called Chopper his friend!

Chopper used to think that was the happiest day of his life, that there was no way things could get any better than they were in that perfect moment. But things did get better!

Luffy is one of the nicest people in the whole world. He always plays with Chopper, and includes Chopper in his pranks, and says nice things about Chopper, and crawls into Chopper's bed to sleep, and says that Chopper is a good doctor!

It all makes Chopper feel so warm inside that he can hardly remember a time when he had felt cold.

And Luffy's not just like that with Chopper, he's like that with all of his friends! It makes Chopper so, so happy to watch all of his friends together.

Sure, Luffy's not perfect. He runs around when Chopper tells him that he should be resting, and he smells like the moment before a lightning strike, and he steals everyone's food. But! There's so much good about Luffy that it's all worth it.

See, at first Chopper had thought that Luffy was so scary.

Now Chopper knows for a fact that Luffy is scary.

-

Chopper woke up on his desk. This in of itself wasn't that unusual of a situation, but what was unusual was that he'd woken up naturally. Usually when Chopper fell asleep at his desk someone would come to carry him to bed and that would wake him up, but Chopper almost always pretended to still be asleep.

Chopper rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as the days events started to come back to him. They had got caught up in a really bad storm, one of the worst Chopper had ever seen! But it was calm now. Chopper could see the dimming orange light of sunset outside his window, and he could hear the sounds of Sanji chatting with someone while he made dinner in the other room. Chopper almost got up to join them, up stopped himself. Chopper furrowed his brows. Why had he passed out in the infirmary instead of the kitchen or the boy's room?

Then he remembered! During the storm Luffy had taken a bad hit from the rigging that knocked him off the ship, and with all the chaos it had been a little while before anyone noticed. Luffy had taken in quite a bit of water, but was uninjured besides that. Luffy had claimed to feel fine, and he probably was, Chopper had seen him walk away from much worse perfectly fine, but Chopper was still a little paranoid after last week's accidental octopus swallowing incident. Chopper had just wanted to make sure that nothing was going to try to escape Luffy's stomach, and that must have been when he had fallen asleep.

That must have also been when Luffy snuck off, as a quick sweep of the infirmary revealed no hidden Luffys. Chopper got up with a huff, the chatter from the kitchen was much to calm for Luffy to be involved, so he'd probably be out on the deck somewhere.

Chopper trotted out onto the deck, and was immediately hit with an overpowering smell of lighting and ozone.

Chopper ran back inside, fur standing on end. We're they still caught up in the storm? It smelled even worse now.

But the boat was still, and light was streaming in through the porthole. Nami had said that the worst of it was over, and Nami was never ever wrong about the weather.

Chopper carefully stuck his nose back outside. He could smell ozone, and fresh rain, and lighting about to strike.

And Luffy yelling in the yard.

Goddammit! Luffy snuck out, and he was playing without Chopper, that bastard!

Chopper hurried off to give Luffy a good talking to, scary smell completely forgotten. After all, it was just Luffy's smell. Nothing to be worried about.

6

For most of her life Robin couldn’t help but be ashamed of her own skills and abilities. Her devil fruit power made her a freak, and her archaeological knowledge made her a criminal. It didn’t take long for her to apply that feeling of shame to her very self.

Which was part of the reason Monkey D Luffy intrigued her so.

Robin saw the way he acted when talking about his crew. So boastful, so proud.

And Robin tried her best to not let herself want anything, but she watched Luffy, and then he saved her, and.

She _wanted._

Almost more than she had ever wanted anything in her life 

She wanted him to brag about her. She wanted him to look at her with that spark in his eyes. She wanted him to want her to show off. 

And for a while, he did. And for a while, she was happy. 

But eventually, as Robin has learned, all good things must come to an end. 

Except this time it didn’t. 

-

It starts with a gunshot. That makes the ordeal sound more ominous than it is.

“God fucking dammit,” swears Nami, “ not again!”

“Luffy, do you always have to do this?” asks Usopp.

Robin’s not sure where one would find such information, but if there was a record of how many Davy Back Fights occurred every year, and who the crews involved were, the Strawhat pirates would be the second most common participants.

Luffy huffed. The first game was some kind of relay race that somehow incorporated fire. Sanji, Brook, and Chopper were talking strategy at the starting line.

“No, seriously, Luffy.” Usopp continues, “You know you don’t have to accept every little challenge, right? You know that sometimes we can just have a day where nothing big happens, right?”

Luffy crossed and uncrossed his arms, he mumbled something to the floor.

“What was that?” Nami demanded.

“I said,” Luffy’s tone indicated that this should be obvious, “what’s the point of having the best crew ever if I can’t show it off!”

Usopp sighed. Nami smacked Luffy across the back of the head. “We’re not possessions for you to show off, idot!”

Robin couldn’t help but giggle.

Luffy rubbed the at the bruise forming on the back of his head. “But-”

He was cut off by Zoro shouting, “It’s starting, guys!”

Robin looks back over to the race track. It seem Chopper is starting, and he’s against a deceptively slow looking fish-man.

This should be fun.

Robin offers a hand to her fallen captain. Luffy beams up at her, and takes it. She smiles back, and hopes that they can put on a good show for their beloved captain today.

7

Franky always known weird guys, always been a weird guy, so it’s not like he’s the type to get all snoopy when someone does something weird.

But the Strawhat pirates are really testing him.

Like, the little reindeer that ate the human human fruit. That’s weird, right? What kind of powers do humans have, and what does that have to do with turning into a huge monster?

Or the guy with the sword in his mouth? Zoro’s got to have the bite force of a crocodile or something.

What about, just, 100% willing to let a skeleton join? And nobody’s really going to question that too hard, are that?

Franky’s pretty sure he loves these guys.

But there’s one weird thing that Franky keeps getting hung up on, if only because of how comparatively normal it is.

Luffy will only sleep on other people, or in nests.

The other people thing, Franky can understand, after all, Luffy is just a kid. The nests though, Franky doesn’t get the nests. If Luffy’s nests where just piles of blankets Franky would understand, but after that time Sanji needed his help pulling one apart to get to the spoons hidden inside, Franky can't help but notice how well built the things are.

Back on Water 7, there were a few bird species that could build nests that could withstand the force of an Aqua Laguna. Luffy’s nest kind of remind Franky or those.

Franky wants to ask about the weirdly indestructible blanket nests, but with this crazy crew it seems like there’s always something more important going on.

Oh well. Guess it’ll just have to stay a mystery.

-

Franky got his answer the day the Strawhats finally took a real vacation.

Nami had researched the island extensively before booking a stay at this resort. There was nothing suspicious about the place. It wasn't a secret Marine base, or if it was it was a shitty one. Nami bought passes normally, and had not acquired them via mysterious lottery or reward. And the amount of kidnappings and murders reported by staff was around the national mean for an island of this size.

A perfectly respectable joint, in Franky's humble opinion.

After check-in had been survived, and she had finished screaming into a lobby pillow, Nami took one room key for herself, said, "All right losers, it two to a room!" grabbed Robin by the arm, and left.

Chopper rushed forward, and grabbed Zoro's leg squealing, "it'll be just like a sleepover!" while Zoro grabbed a key, a d started off in what was probably the opposite direction of the room.

Sanji muttered something about Usopp being the least shitty of the bastards while he snatched up a key.

Brook and Jinbei were already wandering off together, probably talking about old man things as they went.

Which left Franky and Luffy.

Franky grabbed the last key with one of his smaller hands, "Guess it's just you and me, Straw-Bro." he grinned

"Woo!" Luffy cheered, "Sleepover with Franky!"

"Sir, I'm begging you," begged the cowering clerk behind the front desk, "please keep it down."

As expected, as soon as they arrived at their room Luff launched himself at a bed to build a nest.

By the time Franky had finished raiding the mini fridge for cola Luffy had pushed the beds together.

Franky flopped onto his now shared bed, and watched with amusement as Luffy scrambled around with sheets and pillows. Luffy worked around Franky easily, and it wasn't long before he had a decent looking nest on his hands.

Luffy still looked put off by something though. He stood back a bit, looking at his new nest and a somewhat bemused Franky, before scurrying over to the luggage.

Luffy scurried back to the bed(s) with a few articles of clothing, and started to place them with the same careful consideration as a mother bird placing twigs in her nest.

Finally satisfied with his work, Luffy flopped onto Franky's arm and curled towards him, and started chattering away about all the things they were going to do later today.

Franky was happy to get a breather after the chaos that was check-in. He nodded along with what Luffy was saying, and added his own comments here and there. After a while, it finally occurred to Franky to ask.

"Yo, bro," Franky started, "I had a question."

"-and then we c- Hmm?" Luffy stopped mid sentence.

"I was just wondering," Franky said, "why are you always building all these-" he cut himself off to make a vague, encompassing gesture with his free hand, "y'know. Nests."

Luffy blinked. "Well, where else would I sleep?" he phrased it as if Franky had just asked him to confirm that the sky was still blue.

"Hmm, guess I can't argue that." Franky said. He took the last sip of his cola, then stood up, taking Luffy with him, "Come on, I'm tired of lying around! Let's see if we can find were Zoro wandered off to." he declared.

And with Luffy whooping and cheering under one arm, Franky decided to stop ruminating on life's great mysteries for the time being, and time to get up to some fun.

8

If Brook had to pick a favorite kind of day, it would definitely be bright sunny ones.

Back with the Rumbar pirates sunny days always meant lots of music. Great care was needed to keep the instruments moisture free, so as soon as it bright and dry outside everyone wanted to play and sing under the open sky.

Then, after so many years in darkness, Brook came to love sunny days on a whole new level, anyone could see that much.

For one thing he never felt lonely on sunny days.

On clear, sunny days Brook would stay outside all day, and soak up the warm rays.

_(It feels nice against his skin. If only he had skin! Yo ho ho ho!)_

Nami and Robin would be out sunbathing, and Zoro liked to work out in the fresh air, and Nami and Robin always had the cutest bikinis on, and Chopper liked to graze on the warm grass, and Nami and Robin…

Where was Brook going with this again?

Right! Sunny days!

Luffy also loved sunny days. Even if everyone else was busy Luffy would always be there to keep Brook company.

-

Even though Brook couldn't get very cold all that easily these days he could still judge the temperature by observing his crewmates.

Mostly just Luffy.

Sure, as soon as Nami made a comment about the heat, of Chopper mentioned that it felt a little more like home outside, Luffy would start to act accordingly. But until someone actually told him what the weather was like Luffy would behave in a very particular way.

Whenever it was swelteringly hot out Luffy was at his highest energy. But when, like now, it was cold it was like the cold itself was sucking the wakefulness from his body.

Right now Luffy was refusing to get out of bed, even though it was almost breakfast time.

It was Brook’s responsibility to make sure everyone was awake and ready to eat in the morning. He poked and prodded at the only unawake member of the crew, a Luffy shaped lump of blankets.

“Captain~” Brook sang to the Luffy shaped lump, “it's almost time to eat.” 

“Nnng.” Said the lump. Oh dear, it must be colder than Brook thought.

Brook started to mentally run down the checklist of who ran hottest in the crew. Sanji would definitely refuse to leave the kitchen right now. Zoro, maybe? No, that would cause a scene if Sanji saw them. Hmm.

As Brook was thinking a hand slithered out of the Luffy shaped lump to grab his wrist. “Nnng,” said the lump again, “c-carry me?”

“Of course, captain.” Brook said. 

Luffy didn’t weigh all that much, but the blanket lump was unwieldy and added about five pounds, so the trek to the kitchen was a bit slow going. On the way Brook could feel Luffy shift closer to press his cold nose to Brook’s ribcage, as if he put off any heat. It was enough to make Brook’s old heart feel warm.

_(If only he had a heart! Yo ho ho ho!)_

9

After spending the better part of his life as a pirate captain Jinbei picked up on a few tricks to make sailing easier on everyone.

Variety in meals was a big one. Schedules was another.

Chore charts were absolutely vital.

But those were just the basics, it was really the little things that could make or break a crew.

Little things like, could you put up with the guy snoring a bed over, could you convincingly fake a laugh when the cook told another bad joke, or could you follow along with all the little rituals the superstitious guy imposed on the crew.

On paper the Strawhats shouldn’t work.

The cook and the swordsman fight constantly. The navigator has to yell at everyone for anything to get done. The doctor keeps forgetting he’s a doctor.

The captain talks to fish.

They make it work, somehow, and now Jinbei has to be apart of what makes it work.

Even if he’s pretty sure Luffy is gossiping with the sea life.

-

At first Jinbe had wondered what Luffy did on the figurehead all day. When he asked the answer had been a resounding shrug. Jinbe wasn’t the snooping type, so that remained a mystery for the longest time.

One day, after they hit a particularly rough patch of sailing, Franky asked Jinbe if he could swim around to make sure there wasn’t anything unusual underwater.

Jinbe didn’t see any damaged, but he did see a gathering of sea turtles at the front of the ship. Now that was unusual. He swam over to see what was going on, and found Luffy bent over the water, chattering at the turtles.

Luffy saw him and waved. Jinbe surfaced.

“What’s going on?” Jinbe asked, as some as he spoke the sea turtles scattered.

“Aw,” Luffy pouted, “me and those guys were just talking. You scared ‘m off.”

Jinbe thought for a second.

Could some humans talk to sea life? Chopper could, but maybe that was because he was also a reindeer. Wait, could reindeer talk to sea life?

Franky called from somewhere on deck, “Hey! Is Jinbe over there?”

Luffy yelled back an affirmative. Jinbe thought that maybe he should ask someone about this. 

Before Jinbe could say anything a passing sea king decided to make its presence known.

In the ensuing chaos of almost being eaten, Luffy yelling at Sanji how he wanted the sea king cooked, and finally getting back to Franky that nothing was wrong with the ship, Jinbe almost forgot that his captain could talk to sea turtles apparently.

Jinbe almost went to aks Chopper about that, but then he remembered all of the times he’d seen other crew members over the years talking to animals or inanimate objects.

Maybe that was just something Luffy did to pass the time?

Well, nothing to be gained from snooping anyways.

+1

Vivi was worried.

Luffy had smelled strangely familiar, and then she’d heard his full name…

He wasn’t even hiding it, and it’s not like it’s a secret that the Nefertari’s are former celestials.

This could be bad.

Just as she was thinking of maybe shifting, and making a break for it, Luffy appeared behind her.

She gasped. How had she not heard him?

“Hey,” Luffy started, “You don’t got to be scared, or anything.”

“W-what do you mean?” Vivi tried. Dammit, he already knew!

“I mean…” Luffy broke off into a hum and closed his eyes in thought. He opened them before Vivi could move, and smiled and said, “I mean you’re like me, right?”

“What if I am?” Vivi challenged.

“So cool!” said Luffy, “It’s been forever since I met someone like me! Can you talk to fish to?

Vivi blinked, this wasn’t how she pictured this conversation going down. “Umm, no, I can’t. Talk to fish I mean.”

Luffy deflated, “Oh.”

“But I can talk to desert animals.”

Luffy sprung back, _“Oh?”_

“Yeah.” she said lamely.

Luffy leaned in closer. “Can you fly!?” he whispered excitedly.

Vivi smiled, “Yeah.”

Luffy whopped loud enough to draw attention to them. Nami came round the corner and asked what was going on. Sanji shrieked when he saw how close they were standing, which drew even more attention.

Luffy laughed and said, “It’s a secret.” which only made Nami more curious, and Sanji more upset.

Nami and now Copper were interrogating Luffy, Sanji was going through the five stages of grief, Zoro and Usopp were starting to wander over.

Luffy looked at Vivi and smiled.

Vivi smiled back and thought to herself, Maybe this would work out after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope u guys are ready for more of this shit cause coming up I've got How To Train Your Sabo + a fic about the big black bird that raised Law


End file.
